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You don't know of enough tech sites to claim that "almost every tech site" banded together on something. No one does.

The level of donations is covering my hosting costs and some people have even donated twice -- which is very encouraging.

However, I have been regularly pestered by companies which want to advertise on my site (it's the most popular Net-news/commentary site in NZ) so in order to accomodate them without burdening regular visitors, I've created separate page that carries the ads.

The idea behind this is that those who want to offer a donation can do so and get the warm fuzzies that come from such philanthropy -- while those who can't afford or don't want to pay can, if they so choose, visit the advertising page and generate revenues for the site that way.

Of course that still leaves those who will neither donate nor support the advertisers -- but hey, you'll always get people who fall into that classification.

My philosophy is that if you provide good quality content in a fair and resonable way, you will end up being paid what it's worth to those who use it. If you find you're not getting any donations then obviously you need to improve your content to increase its value.

The level of donations is covering my hosting costs and some people have even donated twice -- which is very encouraging.

However, I have been regularly pestered by companies which want to advertise on my site (it's the most popular Net-news/commentary site in NZ) so in order to accomodate them without burdening regular visitors, I've created separate page that carries the ads.

The idea behind this is that those who want to offer a donation can do so and get the warm fuzzies that come from such philanthropy -- while those who can't afford or don't want to pay can, if they so choose, visit the advertising page and generate revenues for the site that way.

Of course that still leaves those who will neither donate nor support the advertisers -- but hey, you'll always get people who fall into that classification.

My philosophy is that if you provide good quality content in a fair and resonable way, you will end up being paid what it's worth to those who use it. If you find you're not getting any donations then obviously you need to improve your content to increase its value.

After I resigned as a resource manager for a large Telco, I started up my own online communications company (back in the days when 2400bps modems were the standard and 9600 was truly exotic).

I was too early -- it was only 1989 and email wasn't even a feature on local area networks, let alone nation-wide ones.

However, I sold that company and started up a software venture that developed some very successful email/fax bridging software. I also sold that company as well when it started to get so big that I was entering "management drift"

About that time the Net really started to take off (1995) so I started up several online ventures including a couple of news sites 7am.com and Aardvark.

For several years I ran 7am.com with the aid of just one US-based reporter which meant that I had to be "on call" 24/7 for 365 days of the year. That was really hard.

Making it worse was the fact that I live in a timezone that is up to 14 hours ahead of the USA which meant that I had to work from 10pm through to about 5pm local-time -- snatching just four or five hours a day in the late afternoon/early-evening.

Thanks to the efficiencies of being a small operation (and some smart marketing) I built 7am.com up into a syndicated news service that provided news headlines to over 200,000 websites by way of its Java newsticker which was loaded about a million times a day (not bad for a 1.5 person operation).

I eventually sold 66% of that business to some investors because it needed to grow and, once again, I didn't want to drift into a management role. Unfortunately the investors had no clue about where the value was and, in my opinion, really stuffed things up.

With the money I made from selling part of my shareholding, I started building jet engines (yeah, I'm the guy with the jet-powered gokart that featured on slashdot a while back).

Now I'm working 14/7 trying to keep up with the orders (a little accident a while back didn't help at all) and am in the process of organising a number of licensing deals so that I can get back to R&D rather than production work. The obvious alternative was to employ people to do what I do now and move myself into a managerial role (no, that ain't going to happen!).

You want tips about being self-employed?

1. Make sure you like what you're doing.
It's really easy to put in the hours and produce good quality work if you're enjoying yourself.

If you're not enjoying yourself than it can be awfully hard to roll out of bed and you'll find yourself looking for excuses not to work -- which means you'll probably piss people off and won't make any money.

2. Get an expert to do your taxes.
I have fought with the taxman for years -- even went to court over a tax issue and won. Unfortunately, you can't beat the system and as we left the court-room, one of the people from the tax office said "we'll get you" -- and they kept the pressure on right up until I got an professional to file my taxes for me.

Besides which -- I find all that paperwork to be really boring -- and therefore it's the kind of thing which you're tempted to leave to the last moment -- not good.

3. Don't underestimate how much money you'll need.
If possible, ease yourself into self-employment. It's much easier if you can work on your own stuff evenings and weekends until you're making more (tax-paid) money from it than you get from your day-job. Then you can dump the day-job, safe in the knowledge that you're not going to be living off your savings.

And remember, billing someone isn't the same as banking the money. Some companies will try to delay paying you for as long as they can -- and that can really screw you up if you don't have money in the bank to tide you over.

4. Get some good business advice.
You might be the best programmer in the world - but that don't mean squat unless you've got a plan. Spend a few bucks to get some quality business advice. There are people out there who will take you through all the steps -- right from working out exactly what it is you'll be offering customers through to the details of incorporation.

You need to stay in touch with these people and get a regular checkup to make sure that you're sticking to your business plan.

5. Keep your overheads down.
I've been working from home ever since I went out on my own -- and it's great.

Not having to suffer a long commute every day means that I'm already at least a couple of hours ahead of those who have to travel to their office and back. I also save money on gas, wear and tear, parking and the like.

Remember -- the days of dot-com excesses are long gone. Unless you can find someone to bankroll you with millions of dollars in venture capital, the money you'll be spending is probably your own.

However, while on the subject of working from home, it really pays to set yourself up an office in a separate room if you can. This provides a virtual border between work and play.

If you set yourself up in the living room or your bedroom you'll be sitting right next to temptation such as the TV, your bed and other stuff which sometimes looks a lot more attractive than a subtle bug lurking in a piece of code you've already been pawing over for hours.

Hey, I could write a book on this stuff -- hmmm, maybe that could be my next project ;-)

Now, where can I get one of those pulsejets??

Try here:
http://aardvark.co.nz/pjet/pjetkit.htm

Another suggestion worth a look is that offered part way down
this page which suggests that Microsoft's Flight Simulator might be the new terrorist training tool.

Sod that, just use a pulsejet...

---

Lameness, lameness, first time I've hit the lameness filter. My first posting was everything above that line. Maybe it *is* lame, but sometimes I haven't got a lot to say...

Come on, Slashcode authors, SORT IT OUT!

I highly recommend checking out some of the homebrew jet websites these guys have. Its wild to see the different approaches they take to reach the goal of self-sufficiency. One guy used plain old cast iron pipe you could buy at Home Depot and got it working. Another is working on an engine that uses a turbocharger from an M-60 tank! He's also got one that has an afterburner on it with some REALLY cool pictures.

This is quite the hobby. On guy built a really sweet engine that used a PLC to help start the engine which is a multi step process. His worked so well he sometimes had trouble keeping his cart braked. Interesting to see how folks also try various fuels from K-1 to LP gas to Diesel.

I honestly was blown away by the time and effort folks put into one of these just to have it run - but it really was a blast browsing all these sites all day - careful!! You might get hooked! :) Geeks with jet engines is a scary prospect!

browsing his entire site i found an interesting page about how a pulsejet works. it's a brief explanation, considering a pulsejet is a pipe full of hot flaming stuff.

Why don't you read his home page and find out? It's explained quite clearly there.

The guy sells them in kit form. But since there is only one moving part I imagine the kits are pretty easy to assemble. They range in price from $120 to $390, depending on thrust. He also sells them assembled for slightly higher prices.

Scroll to the bottom of this page for more info.

--MM

And this is another late entry ;-)

And this is another late entry ;-)

If you really want to see dangerous -- look at this page !

The correct link is: here

What about the new X-Jet design?

What about this guy who has built a gokart with a massive pulsejet attached and plans to build a jet-powered flying platform.

A new candidate for the Dawin Award perhaps?

Check out the turbine-powered Toyota MR2 and the jet-goped :-)

You have to appreciate the fact that there are literally hundreds of new products, services and companies launched every week -- and if journalists were to publish a story on every PR they received then the newswires would become flooded with the stuff and readers would complain.

The secret to getting a PR turned into a story is to wait until you've got something truly newsworthy before you issue a PR.

There are some companies whose PRs automatically get fined in /deve/null because they send out two or three a day announcing the most mundane and trivial things: "Our website is now listed in Yahoo's dierctory", "Our new sales manager is wearing a brown tie today", etc, etc.

Unfortunately for them, even if they come up with the answer to life, the universe and everything, I doubt anyone will be listening.

The secret to good PR is to figure out ways to become newsworthy. When you do something that is truly of interest to the wider industry (or world) the the journos will beat your door down trying to get a story.

Also -- pick your timing carefully. Every editor and reporter knows (and hates) slow-news days. There are some days when absolutely nothing is happening out there and those are the days when we tend to reluctantly start paying more attention to the PRs that come across our screens.

What's not newsworthy on a day when Yahoo buys the NY Times and Dell files for Chapter 13 might well be a lead-story on another day when yours is the only story happening.

Of course achieving this eye-catching status is not easy - or everyone would be doing it -- right?

As far as PR companies go -- it's been my experience that they're really good at spending your money but don't gain you a lot of ground. Let's face it, if you're not newsworthy then no amount of PR-spend is going to get your stories run in a reputable publication.

And as for the format of a PR -- keep it very, very short. If you haven't convinced the editor/reporter that you're newsworthy within the first paragraph they'll never read the rest anyway.

If you've sparked their interest -- they'll contact you for more information anyway. Best to leave them a little curious than drop a weighty tombe on their desk that tells them the whole story.

I hope this helps!